Hiding files from a second user

[zoran]

When two people are sharing the same computer and the second person is a guest that will be needing to work only with a few files, is there some way that critical files can be hidden from the second persons reach?

 

[nkonstas]

Shouldn't you create an account for the second person and place any files you both work on under /Users/Shared...?

Or even better, if the files are not huge (i.e. videos) share between users via dropbox (or other) service?

 

[MacDawg]

As mentioned by @nkonstas , creating a Guest account is simple and the best solution to your question
You can set it to use only certain applications and files without impacting your account
It is easier to grant limited access to a guest account than to deny broad access on on your account

 

[zoran]

Yes i was aware of the guest account but, i do not want to place files and folders in other places just for the guest user to be able to work with. I was hoping that there was some way to grant access to specific folders for the user to work with. Is that possible, and if so, where?

 

[maflynn]

The best approach is to use OS X, the way it was designed, and that's setting up a second account, or use the guest account.

There may be apps to password protect files/folders and I believe you can create an encrypted DMG through the Disk Utility that will be password protected, but that entails you moving your files to a location to lock it down, which seems less ideal then setting up a second user.

 

[zoran]

There may be apps to password protect files/folders...

This i like windows handles files for other users i guess, am i correct? I think that in my case the best would be to not allow sharing/access of folders and files from different users. Isn't this available in OSX?

 

[maflynn]

This i like windows handles files for other users i guess, am i correct?

I may be misunderstanding your post, but like OS X, Windows has users (standard, and administrator levels) and as such files and directories in the user's home folders will be protected from other users. OS X, works the same way.

Isn't this available in OSX?

Yes, you create two new users User-1 and User-2. User-2, will not have access to User-1's files and folders (provided you set them up as non-admins).

 

[zoran]

Thanx maflynn, just let me ask, i have files that are located in custom created folders inside the MacintoshHD and not in the users folders like the "Downloads" or the "Documents" folders. Those files, can they be hidden from the guest account?
Also files that are on my desktop, can they be granted access for the guest account? I dont wish to be changing them location cause i will mix up the TMachine backup, isnt this true?